Learning from mom’s lessons got piano prodigy started

The Piano Man in Poulsbo is a 15-year-old pupil.

Alec Rodriguez, a 10th-grader at North Kitsap High School, started playing the keys at age 5 1/2 thanks to his mom, Kris. She always wanted to play and starting taking lessons at the Poulsbo community center.

“She came home and taught me and my brother what she was learning,” Alec said. “My brother didn’t take it on, but I immediately fell in love with it.”

It wasn’t too long before Alec started taking his own lessons. “He blew me out of the water. I was on page 12, and he was like on page 54,” his mom said. “He caught on quite fast and past me. He took to it like it was natural.”

Fairly early on, Alec would challenge himself to play tough classical music, like Beethoven. “I was intimidated and quit for a while.” But not for long. He was inspired going to recitals and watching and listening to other young pianists play. “I was instantly hooked on Rachmaninoff – even to this day,” Alec said.

He said he tries to practice about two hours a day on their 100-year-old “Goodwill” piano, but “a lot of times I don’t because of school and other things.”

Alec’s first big break came at age 11 when he won the Bremerton WestSound Symphony’s Young Artists Competition at the junior level for those under age 16. “It was surreal,” he said of being a soloist with the symphony. “I’d never done anything like that before. I’d heard recordings with the orchestra but never pictured that being me.”

The winner gets to perform with the symphony, and Alec did so well director Alan Futterman invited him to play again the following year because rules don’t allow someone to win two straight years. However, Alec won again the year after that. “He won every time he walked in,” Futterman said. “He’s got a 90 percent chance of winning again, unless something terrible happens. But he’s solid as a rock. He’s an incredible talent.”

Futterman, 68, said he’s seen a number of child prodigies over the years, and Alec is among them, already playing at a professional level. He said Alec’s future could include attending one of the finest conservatories like Juilliard. “I have great hope for his future and will do everything I can to help him,” Futterman said. “My goal for him is to take off” and go to the biggest stages in New York or Europe. I’ll work with him with the “ultimate goal for him to move on.”

Futterman said Alec has a musical maturity far beyond his years. “He’s certainly got it.” He’s got a great touch and feel for playing, and he knows “how not to overplay,” which is rare for a youngster. “He’s even-tempered and always a pleasure to work with.”

When Alec reached ninth grade, he joined the high school choir as its accompanist. Kris said his brother Aidan, who is 4 1/2 years older, had bragged about Alec, and a counselor literally dragged him over to meet the choir teacher.

Alec recently put on a solo concert at a church to raise $865 for the North Kitsap choir program. Its budget was cut last year, so the high school teacher was let go and the middle school teacher now takes on both jobs.

He said that was a great challenge for him because he played five pieces from different eras, some with multiple movements. Normally he just performs one piece. “I had to get my brain refocused after each one,” he said of the memorization. Some were “super happy and joyful, while one piece was from World War II – polar opposites.”

Alec this month was set to compete in a Russian Chamber music competition on Mercer Island. He placed third at that event in the past and admitted it was “kind of an eye-opener. It was kind of a wake-up call. I saw some amazing piano playing that I thought only adults would perform.”

While Alec mostly plays classical music, he said he also has some interest in jazz. “There’s a learning curve to say the least,” he said, adding he’s not much of a fan of the improvisation required for that type of music, but he hasn’t really tried it.

He has a few other interests as well. He plays chess and has participated in three high school tournaments. He also likes hiking, such as on Hurricane Ridge and Mount Townsend.

During the pandemic, he joined the MIT Origami Club online and has excelled at that, too.

Kris said, “We’ve got boxes and boxes of it.”

“It’s like a puzzle for me — I like to solve it,” he said, adding his favorite classes are engineering and math.

But playing piano is his first love. He would love a career in piano performance, but he also is interested in composing.

Futterman said Alec could excel as a teacher when he gets tired of performing. “Many great performers decide it’s not so glamorous every night playing a concert one city after another,” Futterman said, adding touring can be fun in your 20s. “But when you want to have a normal life you don’t want to be on the road anymore. It’s not the lifestyle for everybody.”